David Benioff On Why Bran Stark Is Sitting Out 'Game Of Thrones' Season 5

By: Kyle Pinion Friday, November 7, 2014 0 comments

When we last left Bran Stark, he was basically, as Harper puts it, "meeting the wizard Shazam". And for those who have read the books, Bran's meeting with the Three-Eyed Raven is about where we've been left with his story in the books.

So it was no surprise when it leaked that Isaac Hempstead-Wright's character would not be appearing in Season 5 at all, but David Benioff spoke with Entertainment Weekly recently to explain that rationale a bit further:

Ideally that wouldn’t have gotten out and it’s unfortunate it did.  The fact is, even though we’re making changes to the books and adapting as necessary, we’re trying to keep the various storylines the same as the books and trying to keep them roughly [chronologically] parallel.  And last year we caught up to the end of Bran’s storyline [in George R.R. Martin’s most recent A Song of Ice and Fire novel, A Dance with Dragons]. So if we pushed him forward this season, then he’s way ahead of where the other characters are...It made sense to stop where we did.  He’s now entering a training period which is going to take quite some time, much of which isn’t particularly cinematic.  So rather than being stuck in a cave for a year, we figured it would be interesting to leave him out for a little bit, so when you see him again …

Given how dreadfully dull Bran's storyline is compared to everything else in the series, this is very welcome news I'd say. And perhaps this will give them time to really spruce up everything regarding his character, or whatever it is George RR Martin decides to do with him, provided The Winds of Winter actually comes out before Season 6.